Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and his officials. He has undoubtedly seen the proceedings over the past number of weeks after the committee took the decision to invite various advocacy groups, representatives and some service users to share their experience in using public transport. The committee did this after being contacted by a lady alarmed by the celebratory tone she noted in the news that the service was going from requiring 24 hours' notice to four hours' notice on the DART. We took a collective decision to tackle this as a committee. It is important that we have done this work.

I asked Ms Murray what she would say if she could ask the Minister a question. She said she would ask why he failed to turn up at the initiation of the DART service requiring four hours' notice. Was he consulted about the launch and if so, did he ever indicate he was in a position to attend it? I welcome the Minister's announcement that he will appoint people of varying abilities to the State boards. It is a positive development but one would wonder why the announcement was not made in November 2016, when the Minister started a review on who was to be appointed to State boards. Perhaps I am wrong.

In November 2016, the Minister indicated a change in appointments to State boards. Has anybody been appointed since the procedure changed? Has anybody with disability issues been appointed to the board of a public transport company? We heard from Mr. Padraic Moran today about a case of a cart going before a horse. He was part of the consultation committee for the creation and establishment of the app. It was launched two weeks ago and he is being brought in next week to test whether it works. It seems farcical to launch an app without having conducted a test on it.

The Minister says there has been unacceptably slow progress in recent years. Has he, since becoming Minister, ring-fenced a certain percentage of his annual budget to accelerate that progress and make more public transport vehicles more accessible? Has he increased and ring-fenced the budget and, if so, what is the percentage? He says that Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann city fleets are 100% wheelchair-accessible. That is very positive and welcome. What percentage of bus stops are wheelchair-accessible to enable people to get on and off the bus? It is good if the bus can accommodate a wheelchair but it is problematic if one cannot get the wheelchair on. We learned from a witness about where a person had to be carried out of his or her wheelchair, held by shoulders and legs, out of the wheelchair, onto the bus, and back into the wheelchair. What percentage of bus stops are wheelchair-accessible? A large chunk of our routes are tendered out and even more recently, with the change in timetables and rostering in Bus Éireann, a large percentage of private operators are contracted to provide the service. Is there any requirement for private contractors to have wheelchair-accessible buses to qualify for a State contract? Some 3% of all public bodies should have people with a disability employed. Will the Minister confirm that the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, as well as the various agencies under his remit meet that 3% target?

Mr. Padraic Moran raised a matter today which was raised by another person previously and I have experienced it in my own constituency. While the travel pass is administered through the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, it is something in which the Minister might get involved. The travel pass is available to somebody who has a disability pension from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Somebody might be doing part-time work or be retired on sick grounds with a small occupational pension. I know a person in Mullingar who has an occupational pension, which is the same as what he would receive as a disability pension but, because it is an occupational pension, he is disqualified from availing of a free travel pass. He cannot drive. There should be consideration to introducing medical need where the free travel pass is concerned and I would welcome the Minister's opinion on that.

The Minister spoke about a whole-of-Government approach to dealing with people with disabilities. While we are speaking specifically about public transport today, what about the parts of the country where there is no public transport, no buses, no trains, no DART and no Luas? The motorised transport grant was abolished for new entrants in February 2013. It is now February 2018, five years later, and that has been closed to new applicants. I would appreciate if the Minister could update us today about when he envisages that the Government will launch that scheme again.

He spoke last year about launching a campaign for people who park in parking bays for people with disabilities. It is a welcome initiative. A witness who came before the committee spoke about the number of people who placed their shopping, buggies and luggage in the disabled space on Dublin Bus. Are there any penalties in place? If not, would he consider introducing penalties for people who park in a disabled car space or who use the disabled space on Dublin Bus services for holding something that should not be there?

I have two final points and thank the Chairman for his indulgence. The Minister confirmed today that the National Disability Inclusion Strategy, 2017-2021 contains 19 targets for his Department. Has any one of those 19 targets been fully implemented? Of those 19 targets, is there a clear timeframe as to when they will be implemented so that we can actually adjudicate that progress has been made over the four years of the plan? It would appear, from the witnesses at the committee over the last weeks, that there is a particular problem with Irish Rail in helping and assisting people with reduced mobility or varying levels of ability. I do not want to tar everybody working in Irish Rail with the one brush and Mr. Padraic Moran stated he has telephone numbers for certain staff members who are more than helpful and accommodating, which should be acknowledged. What are the consequences when somebody turns up and is not accommodated? They may not have reached the 24-hour target and in some cases we heard of someone giving 48 hours' notice and the target not being reached. Now that the four hour target is in place, what is the consequence if that is not achieved? Will somebody be held responsible for not carrying out his or her job? When do we expect to be in a position where one does not have to give any notice to travel on public transport? We are talking about the implementation and ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Surely we should be working towards a system where no notice is required for someone availing of public transport?